ISIS Urges Muslims To Emigrate To 'New State'

The leader of ISIS has told Muslims it is their "duty" to emigrate to his newly-declared "Islamic State" in Iraq and Syria.

In a 19-minute audiotape, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi specifically appealed to those with practical skills - such as scholars judges, doctors, engineers and others with military or administrative expertise - to come help build the caliphate.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria declared it was establishing a state across the territory in has seized in northern Syria and western and northern Iraq on Sunday.

Mr Baghdadi also appealed to ISIS militants to step up their fighting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"So to arms, to arms, soldiers of the Islamic state, fight, fight," he said.

Although the authenticity of the tape could not be independently confirmed, it was posted on a site previously used by the group and experts said the voice was similar to that on other recordings purported to be Mr Baghdadi.

It was released as the group paraded through the Syrian town of Raqa, riding on tanks and pick-up trucks as they waved ISIS' black flag.

Among the military hardware on display, there also appeared to be a captured Scud missile with the group's name scrawled on the side.

Meanwhile, Sunnis and Kurds walked out of the first session of Iraq's new parliament on after Shi'ites failed to replace prime minister Nuri al Maliki.

The development lessened any prospect of an early national unity government to save Iraq from collapse.

Parliament is not likely to meet again for at least a week, leaving Iraq in political limbo and Mr Maliki clinging to power as a caretaker, rejected by Sunnis and Kurds.

Under a governing system put in place after the removal of Saddam Hussein, the prime minister has always been a member of the Shi'ite majority, the speaker of parliament a Sunni and the largely ceremonial president a Kurd.

The Shi'ite bloc known as the National Alliance, in which Mr Maliki's State of Law coalition is the biggest group, has met repeatedly in recent days to bargain over the premiership but has so far been unable either to endorse Maliki for a third term or to name an alternative.

Fewer than a third of lawmakers returned from the recess.